Mayor David Miller unveiled a YouTube video asking Canadians to sign an online petition urging Ottawa to ban all handguns in Canada. While most handguns are already illegal, the gesture would serve a powerful symbolic purpose by pushing the blame for Toronto gun violence onto the feds. CBC News says that a highly publicized series of raids in 2005, which police said took a major gang out of commission, have resulted in almost no......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. A posthumous tribute wall dedicated to singer/songwriter Elliot Smith sat defaced by graffiti for months on end––LAist said enough, so did the fans and city council.SFist was surprised to learn that chronic presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show––it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovered that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates in China has risen to 1,798 Yuan (or US$251).SFist welcomed in......

Toronto, we are told, is a world-class city. But Toronto is noticeably absent from the list of major urban centres famous for graffiti and street art: New York, Barcelona, San Francisco, Berlin, LA, Melbourne, and London. Even within Canada, smaller cities like Montreal and Vancouver hold a better reputation for graffiti than Toronto. Vandalist seeks to change all that. Toronto has some amazing stuff going on and up onto the walls––we just rarely hear......

It seems there is a sort of subtle resentment for pants growing in popular culture. Although Improv Everywhere has been organizing their annual No Pants Subway Ride in New York for seven years, only recently has the tradition really taken hold in cities around the world. This past weekend, Toronto, along with Adelaide, Australia, New York, San Francisco, and a bunch of American cities you probably aren't interested in hearing about, joined Improv Everywhere......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others.Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish......

Does the image at right strike fear into your soul? You may be in luck, because this weekend local activists The Fat Femme Mafia host Dunk Your Chunk, a fat-positive swim event. The duo, comprised of Chelsey Lichtman and Liz Brockest, have hosted other fat-related events, including dance performances, workshops, and a fat cabaret that featured only performers of size. They've also been known to do some tagging from time to time. The event is......

Premier Dalton McGuinty says that he is not prepared to follow Quebec's example and ban cell phone use while driving, in spite of studies showing that the practice is more dangerous than driving drunk. McGuinty said that "some people also distract themselves by drinking coffee, eating and applying makeup while driving" and he wouldn't know where to draw the line. Because if you can't stop one stupid and extremely dangerous practice, there's no point......

This Friday, November 16, we (Newmindspace) will be hosting our very first lightsaber battle! This summer at Burning Man, we witnessed a 10,000-person lightsaber battle put on by a camp called Watto's Junkyard, easily the largest lightsaber battle since the Jedi Civil War. However, with our limited resources, we realized that without a large donation from a rich weirdo (which are plentiful in San Francisco), we would probably not be able to get the......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without......

Photo of Post Porn Modernists Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens by Julian Cash. It must be nice to write a column for The Globe: you can pass judgment on artists’ work without attending to pesky trivialities like seeing their shows, and project your own insecurities and feelings of lack onto people who are actually changing the world. Herein is a review of a recent show by Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens at Buddies in......

Torontoist has had a long history of critiquing Tourism Toronto's lackluster ad campaigns. Remember Toronto Unlimited? We had a field day with that one. And those awful Live With Culture ads? Yuck. But it seems like the appointment of David Whitaker as Tourism Toronto's president back in March injected a little spirit into the agency. Earlier this week, they announced a new campaign targeting gay tourists from the States. The tagline? Toronto: As Gay......

The Louvre. Tate Modern. SFMOMA. Guggenheim. What do these places all have in common? They're all top-notch, world-renowned museums, yes. But beyond the most obvious answer, they're also all located in some of the most notoriously expensive cities in the world and they still manage to offer better admission deals than the newly-renovated ROM. The ROM has quietly jacked up the price of its cheap(er than the other) nights. Previously, Friday evenings from 4:30–9:30......

Actor Darryl Pring is a big guy (you might recognize him as the farmer on the bouncing tractor from the "Milk Rap" ads). Pring is also a funny guy who has written and produced a play called Fatty, which will be touring Fringe Festivals (including the Toronto Fringe ) across Canada this summer. Dubbed a "fictional true story" Fatty is adapted from the novel I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl. The play tells the story of......

Chances are if you are a pervert, an intellectual, or a writer, then you are very familiar with the works of Chuck Palahniuk. The author of "Invisible Monsters", "Choke", and the cult classic "Fight Club" will be in town tonight to sign copies of his new book, "Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey." Palahniuk has earned a reputation as being an eccentric, a nihilist, and a genius. Playboy has refused to publish some of......

Daniel Handler! In Toronto! You may know him better as children’s writer Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events fame, but he has written three books for adults not as Snicket's "Handler," but quite wonderfully as himself. He'll be talking to charming local writer Jason McBride (who Torontoist may have seen in The Annex last week--belated hullo, Jason! If you weren’t Jason, greetings to the gent who is passing himself off as Jason quite......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay tribute......

It takes chemistry, faith and ego control to make a comedy duo work—elements that aren't easy to keep in check. In improvisational theatre, a duo has even less control over the laughs because it's all made up on the spot. But that's the beauty of the form—it's a high wire act. Me Likey, a combo comprised of Jan Caruana and Rica Eckersley, is one of the city's most successful comedic pairings. In June, the......

After personally emailing us to confirm that they won't be detained and given a "special Canadian inspection" at the border, San Francisco's Birdmonster are happy to finally be allowed in our fair land, and will be headlining a show at The Horseshoe this Wednesday, March 28, in support of their latest album No Midnight. In an ironic twist, Mason Proper was set to be one of the opening acts, but will no longer be on......

Tonight, Puerto Rico-born Robbie Rivera (aka the "Juicy Man") comes to This is London to spin his juicy beats with Manzone & Strong. Otherwise we think Toronto will probably be resting up for the next evening. This Saturday is filled with genuinely difficult choices for the breakbeat-inclined weekend warrior. One on hand, Burning Man favourite FreQ Nasty's Toronto stop at Footwork for Activate Promotions' Think:IN:Breakbeat is going to be the dirtiest, nastiest breakbeats this......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the......

Hey, it's snowing. Crazy! A tangled web of relationship intrigue baffles the investigators of a Markham double homicide. After reading this article three times, I still can't figure out who was married to who and who was having what affairs... ...and on that note, Happy Valentine's Day. With a similarly macabre look at love, a late Neolithic couple found buried together outside of Mantua will not be separated because, well, they're just too adorable.......

Although it may be Valentine’s Day – don’t worry, there’s still time to buy flowers or chocolates - Christopher Moore still thinks you suck. Join This Is Not A Reading Series tonight as they celebrate the launch of the cult writer’s latest novel, You Suck. The prolific American author – he splits his time between San Francisco and Hawaii – is probably best known for the novel Lamb. His books often merge horror and comic......

Depressed by the current deep freeze? Here’s something to make you feel warmer – next week, the boys of summer (or at least the pitchers and catchers) report for spring training for the Blue Jays’ 30th anniversary season. Simpsons was one of many businesses eager to show their support when the Jays prepared to take the field in 1977. The “Simpsons Dugout” concept almost sounds like the Olympic section at The Bay (also located on......

Tonight marks the first installment of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School at the Cameron House. The event provides a night of drawing from the live model with a series of cheeky twists. Firstly, the model is not some random naked person, but rather a cabaret star dressed in appropriately Vaudevillian costume. And at this life drawing session, the art-making is accompanied by alcoholic beverages and groovy tunes, not to mention kooky contests (best incorporation of a......

Yesterday marked the official release of Google Earth 4 (the public beta has been available since the summer), a free product with a cleaner interface and a beefed-up focus on 3-D architectural imagery. Part of the appeal Google Earth holds is "flying" through three-dimensional terrain as if in a 90s-era flight simulator, and Google wants to map bridges, skyscrapers, and landmarks as well. Television news networks have relied on the paid, enhanced version Google......

Happy Holidays from the Ist-A-Verse! Austinist is in good holiday spirits, and so is their interview, Andy Roddick. They know what CDs they want in their stockings, but more than that, they know that the greatest gift you can give them is making fun of a famous Austinite on national television. Torontoist isn't really feeling the Christmas spirit, though: unfortunately, there's still no snow in Toronto. Maybe if somebody were to put a big Christmas......